Maine bishop grateful for gay marriage vote

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Maine is thanking the state's voters for repealing the state's gay marriage law.

Unofficial tallies from 93 percent of Maine's precincts show the side that called for a people's veto with 52.9 percent of the vote.

Heavy Maine turnout surprises officials

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - The turnout in Tuesday's referendum in which Maine voters decided on a gay marriage question was far heavier than expected.

Early predictions of 35 percent of voter turnout - heavy for an off-year vote - were upgraded on Tuesday as long lines formed at polls across Maine. Voters ended up repealing Maine's gay marriage law.

Even with incomplete vote figures, the turnout was at least 53 percent of eligible voters. Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap says the figure could grow to around 60 percent - approaching what Maine sees in a major election year.

Maine gay marriage push to continue

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Supporters of the gay marriage law that was rejected at the polls by Maine voters are taking heart in the 47 percent their side received in a referendum that drew an unexpectedly high turnout.

With more than 200 supporters as a backdrop, leaders of the campaign that sought unsuccessfully to prevent the scuttling of Maine's gay marriage law said they are not quitting what they termed a civil rights struggle. But what form their effort will take is not yet known.

Voters reject same-sex marriage law

LEWISTON — Gay marriage appeared in danger in Maine in a closely watched referendum Tuesday that the nation's gay rights movement had hoped would yield a breakthrough victory at the ballot box.

Voters were asked to decide whether to repeal or affirm a state law that would allow gay couples to wed. The law was passed by the Legislature in May, but never took effect because of a petition drive by conservatives.

With 84 percent of precincts reporting, the question of whether to repeal the law was passing 53 percent to 47 percent.

Lewiston, Auburn vote down TABOR

Maine voters have rejected a referendum that would have placed limits on increases in state and municipal government spending and taxes.

David Crocker, chairman of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights campaign, conceded the race at 10:30 p.m.

The measure would have held government spending increases to the rate of inflation plus population growth, with voter approval required to exceed those limits.

Maine becomes 5th state to allow pot dispensaries

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - With Tuesday's election, Maine becomes the fifth state to allow dispensaries where marijuana can be distributed to medical patients.

But medical marijuana advocates say Maine won't become like Los Angeles, where hundreds of dispensaries have popped up and come under critical scrutiny.

Ethan Nadelmann of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance says Los Angeles is the "wild west West" of marijuana dispensaries.

Dejection fills ballroom after gay marriage vote

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Cecelia Burnett and Ann Swanson had already set their wedding date. When they joined about 1,000 other gay marriage supporters for an election night party in a Holiday Inn ballroom, they hoped to celebrate the vote that would make it possible.

Instead, they went home at midnight, dejected and near tears after a failed bid to make Maine the first state to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box.

Current statewide referendum results

Question 1-Veto Gay Marriage Law People's Veto

511 of 608 precincts - 84 percent

Yes, 265,189 - 53 percent

No, 237,638 - 47 percent

Question 2-Cut Auto Excise Tax Citizen Initiative

511 of 608 precincts - 84 percent

Yes, 124,975 - 26 percent

x-No, 357,761 - 74 percent

Question 3-Repeal School ConsolidationLaw Citizen Initiative

511 of 608 precincts - 84 percent

Yes, 195,221 - 42 percent

Strong turnout for gay marriage vote

Maine's top election official says voter turnout is going to be higher than he originally projected because of "intense interest" in referendums including gay marriage.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap originally projected that 35 percent of voting age residents would turn out at polling places on Tuesday. Dunlap now says it appears that the turnout is outpacing those projections.

Another sign is absentee ballots. More than 100,000 people had voted by absentee ballots or early voting before Election Day.

Harvard pens deal to buy power from Maine wind farm

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Harvard University has entered into a 15-year agreement to buy power and renewable energy certificates from a wind energy farm to be built in Maine.

Harvard officials announced Monday that Stetson Wind II facility near Danforth, Maine, expected to go online in the middle of next year, will eventually provide more than 10 percent of the university's electricity needs.

Federal environmental regulators say that will make Harvard the largest purchaser of wind power by a university or college in New England.

Whole country watching Maine's vote on gay marriage issue

PORTLAND (AP) - Gay marriage has lost in every single state in which it has been put to a popular vote. Come Election Day, gay-rights supporters are hoping to make Maine the exception.

In a referendum that is being closely watched around the country and has drawn millions in out-of-state dollars, Maine voters will decide Tuesday whether to repeal a state law that would allow same-sex couples to marry.

Little help for stray cats

For weeks, Martha Truscott and Diane Jellison watched over the dozen or so cats living in the abandoned house on Lewiston Junction Road in Auburn. Nearly all were kittens - some seemed as old as six months, others as young as four weeks — all apparently born from the same mother, the only adult cat in the group. Skinny and starving, they wandered in and out of the house through broken windows. The body of one cat lay out front.

"Nothing's worse than what you see over there," Jellison said.

Except, possibly, what's across the river.

AP Interview: Snowe says no to Reid's bill

PORTLAND (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid won't be getting Sen. Olympia Snowe's vote on his health care reform bill that includes a government-run insurance option.

Snowe was the only Republican on the Senate Finance Committee to vote to advance health care legislation earlier this month. But she told The Associated Press on Friday that she won't vote to proceed with Reid's bill as it's now crafted with a "public option" with a provision that allows states to opt out.

Moving curtains. A long-dead busboy. Virgin spirits. ‘Supernatural Hotspots’ takes on the Empire Dine and Dance

At 2:12 a.m., after more than an hour of cigarettes and coffee and waiting, it was finally time. The bar had been mopped down, customers cleared out, lights turned back up. A crew of two 20-something cameramen and a sound engineer ducked inside the second-floor nightclub so they could film Beckah Boyd and Katie Boyd, a psychic medium and a demonologist, making an entrance.

The pair opened the door, stepped inside.

It only took a minute for a long-dead busboy to introduce himself.

FBI investigating $850,000 Camden Bank transfers

CAMDEN (AP) — The FBI is investigating what is being called the "unusual" transfer of $850,000 from the Camden National Bank.

Bank spokeswoman Diane Norton says the discrepancy was discovered earlier this month when a customer informed the bank of a discrepancy in his documentation.

Norton tells the Bangor Daily News the employee responsible for the transaction has been fired and the case turned over to the FBI. The former employee was not publicly identified.

Ballot requests up in off-election year, clerks say

LEWISTON — As of Thursday, nearly 100,000 Mainers had requested absentee ballots for next Tuesday's general election, according to state election officials.

That's about 40 percent of the number of absentee ballots issued during last year's presidential election, said Julie Flynn, Maine's deputy secretary of state. Presidential and gubernatorial elections typically see higher turnouts than "off-year" elections, such as this year's, when only referendum questions appear on the statewide ballot, she said.

Life sentence for woman who set husband afire

ALFRED (AP) — A Maine woman who pleaded guilty to killing her husband by setting him on fire while he slept got what she wanted. She was sentenced to life in prison.

Kimberly Spampinato, of Wells, told a judge Thursday that the only way to protect society was to accept prosecutors' recommendation that she be locked up for the rest of her life. York County Superior Court Justice Paul Fritzsche obliged, imposing a life sentence.

Suspect in Newport shooting charged with murder

NEWPORT, Maine (AP) - A Newport man is being charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of his father.

The Maine State Police says that Perley Goodrich Jr., was charged Friday, several hours after he was captured at a Newport convenience store.

A waitress recognized the 45-year-old Goodrich and called police.

He offered no resistance.

Maine puts squeeze on low-alcohol British lemonade

 

 

PORTLAND (AP) — Call it a culture clash, trans-Atlantic style.

The Brits think the Americans are puritanical and somewhat batty. The Americans find the Brits morally lax and too willing to bend the rules.

It all started at a high school in Maine when a student consumed half a bottle of Fentimans Victorian Lemonade, then looked at the label and discovered it contained small amounts of alcohol, listed as less than 0.5 percent. By contrast, a typical American beer usually contains about 5 percent alcohol.

Swine flu 'widespread' in Maine

 

 

AUGUSTA (AP) — While swine flu is "quite widespread" in parts of Maine, the state has only enough vaccine to administer to one in seven people among those considered high risk for contracting the illness, the state's top health official said Thursday.

Hunters being asked to keep eyes peeled in Newport area

AUGUSTA — The Maine State Police are asking hunters, who are expected to be in the Newport area, to be on the lookout for anything unusual in the woods, at their camps or in their tree stands.

Police are continuing to look for Perley Goodrich Jr., who is wanted in connection with the death of his father.

The wooded area bordered by four towns has been the subject of a three day search for Goodrich and also is a popular area for deer hunting.

The area borders the town lines of Newport, Corinna, Kenduskeag, and Stetson.

Madore says marriage is part of broader gay agenda

AUGUSTA — Longtime anti-gay activist Paul Madore on Wednesday warned Mainers that voting on Election Day to uphold the law allowing same-sex marriage would further normalize homosexuality. 

At a news conference at the State House less than a week before the Nov. 3 election, Madore made his first public appearance on the issue, flanked by Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality and Brian Camenker of MassResistance.

Man in NH toilet pleads innocent

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A Maine man facing three charges for allegedly climbing into a New Hampshire park's pit toilet has entered a not guilty plea.

Gary Moody of Pittston entered his plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland. He faces three federal misdemeanors for allegedly climbing into a pit toilet in a White Mountain National Forest campground May 25.

UMS chancellor sees 100 faculty cuts

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine Chancellor Richard Pattenaude says 100 faculty positions in the state university system could be cut this spring, meaning 100 fewer classes.

Pattenaude told the Legislature's Education Committee on Tuesday that those reductions would result from a $15 million budget cut this academic year and next. Lawmakers are asking the university system to absorb that budget reduction.

CMP awarded $96 million in stimulus money for meter upgrades

LEWISTON — The Obama administration announced Tuesday it has awarded nearly $96 million in stimulus funds to Central Maine Power Co. to invest in "Smart Grid" technology in Maine.

Officials say the investment will result in smaller electricity bills through a combination of conservation and new pricing packages.

"We're behind, but we're leaping ahead," CMP spokesman John Carroll said. "This is a good time to be entering into this technology."